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St. Johns has best paid workers in state

St. Johns County has the best-paid workers in the state, according to the U.S. Census numbers released Thursday.

The county’s median individual income for full-timers was $69,724, according to the Census’ American Community Survey five-year estimates. That’s almost $5,000 a year more than runner-up Martin County and more than $15,000 more than Nassau County, which had the second-highest median on the First Coast.

On the other end of the scale, Duval County workers who didn’t finish high school have the lowest earning power on the First Coast: just $18,176. That ranks 52nd among Florida’s 67 counties.

The numbers vary most wildly in Baker County. Workers there earn the lowest median income but men with a graduate degree earn more there ($103,229) than they do in St. Johns ($101,003). Unemployment in Baker County swung to both extremes by age. More younger workers between the ages of 25 and 44 — 14.2 percent — were out of a job there than in any Northeast Florida county, but its older workers, in the 45-54 and 55-64 age groups, had the lowest unemployment rates, 4.2 and 3 percent, respectively.

The Census also broke down statewide data by ZIP code, which also showed the First Coast on opposite ends.

The worst place for younger workers to find jobs in the state was in the Northside Jacksonville ZIP code of 32209, where the unemployment rate for residents between ages 25 and 44 was 20.3 percent.

The best among ZIP codes with at least 20,000 residents was in the Tallahassee-area ZIP code of 32312, 1.1 percent.

The best place for workers with a college education was the 32205 ZIP code in Jacksonville’s Riverside/Avondale/Murray Hill area, where more than a third of residents are in professional or management jobs.

The worst was the 34112 ZIP code in Naples, which has a higher share of retirees than the rest of the state.